Under shirts

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: Under shirts

Soo.. this is all great stuff! Who's gonna start reproducing them for us?? :D Mr. Lamoreaux referred to the ************ Red Knit one, but there's clearly many more colours.

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Under shirts

Jason,

I've developed three separate patterns of knit shirt, all of which are civilian in style, and incorperate the design features I noted in the originals I examined. The only stumbling block for a truly 100% accurate knit undershirt is the knit cuff but I may have found an individual who can help me with that. It's now just a matter of finding cuff yarns to match the knit material that's available.

Along the same vein, I think I have located what appears to be a Federal issue knit shirt in several images from the Library of Congress. These shirts are definitely knit as evidenced by the cuffs and cloth itself, except they are unlike any civilian style in general appearance. These shirts appear in off-white and a light gray color and feature a stepped or square fall-down collar, short centered placket, knit cuffs, square body and tapered sleeves. If you can picture a modern long-sleeved polo shirt made from knit wool and with black metal buttons, you can picture the Federal issue knit shirt.

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: Under shirts

Brian,

Wow, this sounds awesome! Please let us know if you're planning on producing a batch for the public.

Regards,

Jason.

[C. Johnson]

Re: Under shirts

That sounds really interesting, keep me up on this.
Thanks!

Best,
Cody Johnson

[Charles Heath]

Re: Under shirts

An undershirt is a handy garment to have at Winter 1864. Lacking that, wearing more than one shirt can be a way to ward off the cold.

[Coatsy]

Re: Under shirts

Ian and Brian, great pictures! Thank you so very much for posting them and the research/information. Also thanks for keeping this thread on topic. I've seen a few orginal pictures of these bottom shirts and they look comfortable, but I've never thought about striping or prints.

[sgt sidd]

Re: Under shirts

I have a question Sir's are we talking about a winter undershirt that is under the shirt that is he has on or is the shirt that he has on called the under shirt? The shirt that you see them have on that everyone sees. Thank you Robert S Lanier

[Canton Zouave]

Re: Under shirts

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about the undershirt in the GNMP Collection. It is made of canton flannel with a one piece body, and one piece sleeve extensions. It is a hand sewn shirt, and as you will note it has a right over left placket, and the neck opening is merely bound with a separate piece of canton flannel. So what about the comments that have been made about it being a reproduction? About two or three forum crashes several years ago, John Stillwagon and I had a very good discussion about undershirts in general and the provenance of the GNMP Shirt. I had heard several times from sources in Gettysburg that the shirt was a fake. So I went to the source. In a chance meeting with Mike Vice, former curator at the GNMP, we spoke about the shirt and its authenticity. Mike vouched for it vintage, but did not have much else to say, aside from the fact that it had made a trip to Harpers Ferry for conservation and documentation. I followed up this chance meeting with the current curator, Dean Knudsen. We discussed the shirt to some degree and was provided the Museum Report for the shirt. This report led me to William Brown III. It turns out that the current incarnation of the visitor center was laid out by Bill in the early 1980's. Bill authenticated the shirt as being a period piece. With Bill's expertise in period garments, his personal validation of the shirt as being of period construction was very helpful. Even though the shirt may be from the mid-19th century, it does not have a known provenance or is it in anyway associated with the battle. Now here is the curve, the shirt was also acquired by Mr. Brown for the collection from an estate auction that was held in Gettysburg during the time period that he was working at the GNMP. Mr. Brown did not recall the family name from the estate sale, but surmised that the information may be had from period (1980's )news papers. Gleemed from the expertise of several well known historians and curators we can conclude that the shirt is from the 19th Century, that it came from the Gettysburg or Adams County Area, and that it isn’t associated with any known participant of the battle or to any other action in the Civil War. Perhaps, going back and reviewing estate auctions listed in the local papers at the time of the acquisition, we might find a family name, but no real way to connect the shirt to a specific individual.


Now, with that out of the way, I have attached some images of the shirt from the GNMP. In some cases, these may be rare pictures….since they were all taken with the garment outside of the case. For my next post, I will have some images of a second and third canton flannel bottom shirts that are in my own collection.

ENJOY the images, in some cases are large and in 6.0 megapixels. I have about 100 iamges of this shirt, and will share some of those as we go along.

[Canton Zouave]

Re: Under shirts (Continued)

To Continue,

I have attached some more images, of a canton flannel bottom shirt that is in my own collection. The shirt is made out of a 6-7 oz. canton flannel, and has several interesting features.

Some of the features of the shirt are:

• Hand Sewn Construction with overcast not flat felled seams
• Neck Gussets with no neck binding
• Offset Placket
• Right over Left Placket Type
• Front is Hald Lined
• Back is lined all the way down to the side vent
• One Piece Body
• One Piece Sleeve, made in two sections

I have two of these shirts and they both follow a basic pattern, but they are not identical. They both show extensive piecing of fabric sections to make what parts were needed for the shirt. A "TRUE" frugal use of the fabric, and not allowing a single piece to go to waste.

[Moonshine]

Re: Under shirts

I have to say that as an owner of one of Mr. Morris' reproductions, it looks EXACTLY like the one in the GNMP exhibit. I was amazed for being canton flannel, it's much cooler than the knit one I have. I thought this would be the other way around. Wearing the "GNMP" shirt under a lined Federal blouse was VERY cool and accommodating. The knit version is warmer and fairs better under another shirt for added warmth.

Just my 2 cents.

[AZReenactor]

Re: Under shirts

Todd,
Thank you so much for sharing these great photos. It is good to see the details close up. The shirt with the side placket is great as well.

I was just reading your and John's comments about this shirt in an old 2004 discussion that popped up during a search for info on period drawers. Gotta love that search feature. ;-)

[Canton Zouave]

Re: Under shirts

I wore my bottom shirt underneath a light weight period print shirt that I had up Rich Mountain with a Lined Blouse. I cna say, depending on the weight of the fabric I used, even under some "ODD" conditions I was very comfortable. It is always nice to test drive my goods. The biggest value I have found to any undershirt is how it makes my Issue Shirt so much more comforatble to wear. With the varying weights and quality of Canton Flannel, a very comfortable summer or winter weight garment can be made. Quality has always been a killer for me when searching for a material whose common use in the 21st Century is for buffing wheels, and work gloves.

[C. Johnson]

Re: Under shirts

John,
Nice pictures, like Troy said it's always nice to see detailed and up close pictures.
Thanks!

Best,
Cody Johnson

[Peachfuz]

Re: Under shirts

From A Private in Gray by Thomas B. Reed, Co. A 9th LA Inf.
"...while I was in the hospital I kept feeling something crawling on me, and one day I thought I would examine and see what it was. So I took off my under-shirt- it was a knit woolen undershirt- and to my great consternation I found five or six body-lice inside my shirt. You ask, "What did you do"? Well, right then I was near committing suicide, for I took that shirt and pitched it out the window, and it was all the woolen shirt I had, and I took cold, relapsed and lost my speach, and oh I how did suffer for that rash act."

Link to one of my all-time fav. photos: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/...56sf=04208:@@@

[C. Johnson]

Re: Under shirts

Nice!
Thanks!

Best,
Cody Johnson